


Escape From Trenzalore

by fardell24



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:10:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26440117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fardell24/pseuds/fardell24
Summary: An Immediate follow up to the end of 'The Name of the Doctor'. How the Doctor and Clara escape from the Tomb and Trenzalore.





	Escape From Trenzalore

**Doctor Who: Escape from Trenzalore**

**The Doctor's Timestream**

Clara Oswald stumbled into the Doctor's arms, as the Timestream started to collapse. “Clara, my Clara,” he said. He noticed something. A figure. Stared in horror.

Clara caught the Doctor’s gaze and followed it. “Who's that?”

“Never mind. Let's go back.”

“But who is he?”

“He's me,” the Doctor admitted, reluctantly. “There's only me here, that's the point. Now let's get back.”

“But I never saw that one. I saw all of them. Eleven faces, all of them you. You're the eleventh Doctor.”

“I said he was me. I never said he was the Doctor.”

“I don't understand.”

“Look, my name. My _real name_ – that's not the point. The name I chose is the Doctor. The name you choose, it's like a promise you make,” the Doctor's voice lowered. “He's the one who broke the promise.”

Clara was mute. Then, without warning, she collapsed.

“Clara? Clara? Clara?” 'The Paradox is affecting her.' He picked her up in his arms. Quietly, he said, “He is my secret.”

“What I did, I did without choice,” the figure said.

“I know.”

“In the name, of peace, and sanity.”

The Doctor glared at the representation of his promise-breaking incarnation. “But not in the name of _the Doctor_.”

The figure turned around.

He clapsed Clara tighter as he said, Almost to himself, “I have to run, before the Timestream collapses, which would be just as bad for you as for me.” He turned back. “I need to retrace my steps back to Trenzalore.”

The Doctor ran, as fast as he could while holding the Impossible Girl in his arms. He didn't look back...

**Tomb of the Doctor, Trenzalore**

Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax contemplated the changing Timestream: it appeared that the loop from Trenzalore and back again was growing shorter.

Doctor emerged, holding Clara.

“You've got her!” Jenny exclaimed.

“Yes, but we need to get back to the TARDIS.” He looked around at the Tomb. “That’s the TARDIS, that's not acting as a Tomb.” He rubbed one of the railings. “Sorry old girl, you know I can't stay much longer.” He stepped away from the Timestream: that the loop from Trenzalore and back again was getting bigger again. 'That's good,' he thought. He handed Clara to Vastra.

“Will she be OK?” Vastra asked as she took Clara in her arms.

“She will be, when we get back to the TARDIS. But now we need to leave. We don't know who, or what, could be watching my Tomb for activity,” the Doctor said. 'Could be anything – anyone – from the Master to Davros.'

“Indeed, there may be a Sontarran Legion out there,” Strax said ominously.

“You didn't betray our position, did you?” Vastra asked.

“Of course not, but Trenzalore has been on our borders many times.”

“Or possibly, Daleks or Cybermen,” the Doctor said. Before one of Clara's echoes erased their memory of him, the Daleks may had sent soldiers to watch Trenzalore. ‘I wouldn't put that past them.'

“But how are we going to close the Tomb again?” Jenny asked.

“It may require my name to open, but it is very easy to close,” the Doctor said.

“But how?” Strax asked.

**Trenzalore**

Once all five were out of the tomb, the Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver at the door. It closed, with a quiet clang, and electronic buzz. “There, unless my name is said again, it will be closed forever.”

Clara stirred in Vastra's arms. Strax scanned her. “It's showing that she is in a REM cycle, sir,” he said.

“Good,” Vastra said.

“It depends what she's dreaming about doesn't it,” the Doctor said.

“What?” Jenny asked.

“Remember that she was scattered through time,” the Doctor said.

Jenny rubbed her temples as she tried to remember “I don't know, the memories are confused,” she said.

“Time was in flux, between the moment the Great Intelligence entered the Timestream and the moment that Clara followed it.”

“I remember you disappeared,” Vastra said with a tear in her eye.

_Clara dreamed as her mind tried to integrate the echo memories._

_'Doctor!'_

_'Doctor!'_

_“Doctor!”_

_'Yes, what is it?'_

_'You are about to make a terrible mistake!'_

_“Doctor!”_

_“Doctor!”_

_'I'm not a Dalek!'_

_'It's smaller on the outside!'_

_'Doctor!'_

_'Doctor!'_

_'Doctor!'_

Vastra looked up from the dreaming Impossible Girl. “Shouldn't we be leaving?”

“Indeed we should,” the Doctor reflected, he also wondered why he hadn’t thought that they should be leaving. “The TARDIS is at the edge of the graveyard.”

“Was that wise?”

“That's where we landed.”

“You mean you crashed – the TARDIS didn't want to come here?”

“Yes,” he admitted.

As they climbed down from the TARDIS-Tomb to the graveyard ground, the Doctor took the time to ruminate further on the situation. The main mystery surrounding Clara had been solved, but there were others. For instance, who was the woman who had given her the TARDIS number? And at a time when she would otherwise have been sucked into the Cloud? He was sure that would remain unsolved. He shook his head. He wanted to focus on the more immediate situation. He knew why the Great Intelligence did what it did.

But why did Clara run into that representation of his Time War Incarnation? He wasn’t sure. There might be something coming that he would run into. He hoped not. ‘Would we cross paths, despite the time lock?’ he thought as he ruffled his hair, and turned to walk down another set of stairs. Dalek Caan had got in. Could others get out? No! The Time War was behind him. It was just happenstance. But regardless of that, Clara was going to need help to recover from the experience. He looked over to where the Silurian detective was carrying his Impossible Girl.

He was certain she would be able to cope, using the same determination she gained from her experience of grief following her mother’s death. He was sure most of her echoes lived mostly fulfilling lives, but some may have had horrible experiences. How much she would retain, time would tell. He then looked to Jenny. He wondered, could she or Vastra help? Or would that be too much of an imposition. He could but ask, but now wouldn’t be the time. They were almost down to the ground, where there could be anything.

Even so, whatever help Clara would need, she would get it. But first, they had to leave Trenzalore behind. He looked ahead, he was certain they would be able to run the gauntlet of whatever was there.

They hadn’t gone far from the TARDIS-Tomb before they encountered the first obstacle.

“DO-NOT-MOVE!”

“Dalek!” the Doctor cried. He ducked behind one of the gravestones, followed by the others.

Vastra gave Clara to Jenny. “What now?” Jenny asked.

“We approach it from behind and then break its eyestalk,” Strax suggested.

“I don't think so,” Jenny responded.

“Typical Sontarran anti-Dalek strategy: it only works 25% of the time!” the Doctor groused. 'Too risky.'

“There are five of us,” Strax said.

“I don't want to lose any of us,” the Doctor said.

“We may not have a choice,” said Vastra.

The Doctor looked away.

“COME OUT DOC-TOR!”

“No!”

“YOU WILL RE-OPEN YOUR TOMB!”

“No!”

“OR YOUR COMPANIONS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!”

“There's only one of you isn't there?”

The Dalek didn't answer. It remained motionless and patient, waiting to carry out its orders, to secure the Doctor's Tomb for the Daleks.

The Doctor frowned. “We can still give the Dalek the slip, but we have to be very careful,” he whispered.

They moved to the next gravestone.

The Dalek saw a flash of clothing through a gap between the many tombstones. “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!” The shot went wide. With two more cries of “EX-TER-MIN-ATE!” two tombstones were destroyed in vain, as their destruction revealed neither the Doctor, nor any of his companions.

The Dalek moved towards where it had seen the flash of clothing.

“That was close,” the Doctor murmured.

“I agree,” Vastra added.

“ _Doc-tor._ ”

The Doctor turned. It was a Cyberman. 'I can turn them against each other.' He wondered how many other enemies of his were hanging around Trenzalore.

“We have to stick together,” Strax said.

Jenny nodded.

“ _You will be upgraded._ ”

“Not if I can help it!” the Doctor aimed the sonic screwdriver at the Cyberman and fired a high intensity sonic burst.

“ _Upgrade in progress!_ ”

“Back towards the Dalek, but not too close,” the Doctor said.

The Dalek again saw movement between the tombstones. “EXTERMINATE!”

The Cyberman saw the Dalek's weapon fire. “ _Dalek detected! Activate stealth mode!_ ”

The Doctor saw the Cyberman cloak. “Cloaking Cyberman, _terrific!_ ” he said, as Vastra and Jenny gasped.

“That gives it a tactical advantage against the Dalek,” Strax said.

“I suppose it would,” the Doctor said.

“We go on, then?” Jenny asked.

“Very carefully, the Cyberman may still be after us,” the Doctor said. He continued in the direction of the TARDIS, with the others following.

The Dalek sighted the TARDIS and trained its gunstick on the doors.

Suddenly an energy beam hit its outer casing. The Dalek immediately turned its eyestalk in that direction. Nothing. “EXTERMINATE!”

The Doctor saw the Dalek firing into thin air. “Right, run for it, before something else arrives,” he said.

The Dalek found its target on its sixth attempt, and winged the Cyberman, heavily damaging it's upper left arm. Its cloaking device failed.

“A CYBER-MAN!”

“ _Upgrade in progress. The Cybermen will claim the Tomb of the Doctor._ ”

“THE DALEKS WILL CLAIM THE TOMB! EX-TER-MIN-ATE!”

“Onwards!” the Doctor cried.

The Cyberman heard the Dalek's battlecry and entered rapid movement mode. The Extermination ray missed and hit a gravestone.

After a brief exchange of weapons fire the Cyberman approached the Dalek from behind and grabbed the eyestalk...

In the confusion, the Doctor and his companions reached the TARDIS just as the Doctor saw some shadowy figures behind her. He clicked his fingers and the police box doors opened. “Quick!” He said. They all dashed inside.

**TARDIS, on Trenzalore**

The Doctor slammed the doors and locked them, dashing to the console.

He brought the TARDIS to full power, sensing that she was eager to get away. Before they could he turned on the Scanner. Besides the Dalek, the Cyberman and the figures he had glimpsed behind the ship, he could see the signatures of many other life forms in the vicinity of the graveyard.

_“MY VISON IS IMPAIRED. I CANNOT SEE!”_

The Doctor looked again. Indeed it seemed that the Cyberman had used the Sontarran strategy that Strax had mentioned earlier. 'Maybe they have converted some Sontarrans,' he thought. He frowned and set the TARDIS in motion.

**Trenzalore**

The TARDIS dematerialised. As the sound of her engines faded away there was a massive explosion as the Dalek self-destructed, heavily damaging the Cyberman and a section of the graveyard as well.

As the echoes from the explosion dwindled the sounds of other spacecraft being started could be heard.

“ _Upgrade in progress... Reporting failure to gain access to the Tomb.”_

**TARDIS – enroute from Trenzalore to Earth**

Almost immediately after their departure from Trenzalore, Clara stirred, and awoke. “Doctor!”

“Clara!”

“We got out?”

“Yes, we are out of the Timestream, back in the TARDIS, and on our way back to Earth.”

Clara smiled. “Good.”

“How do you feel?” the Doctor asked.

Clara paused for a moment. “Tired, confused. I seem to remember things. Things I _know_ I didn't experience!”

“Those would be some experiences of your echoes,” the Doctor said, wondering how many memories she had gained.

“Is that bad?” Vastra asked.

The Doctor pursed his lips. “I don't know. This may be a unique case. Few other Time Lords had travelled even a _tenth_ as far as I have, and that was before the Time War. All Time Lord Tombs were heavily guarded.”

“Maybe the TARDIS has a record?” Clara asked.

“Possibly,” the Doctor pondered, scratching his head.

“I remember coming into the TARDIS and saying that it was smaller on the outside. I remember telling you that I wasn't a Dalek...” she paused. “What was that about?”

“One of your echoes was converted.”

“I don't like the sound of that.”

“She still saved me, by deleting the Dalek's memory of me.”

Clara closed her eyes, remembering more experiences. “I also remember telling you to choose this particular TARDIS.”

“You did?” The Doctor asked. He considered it. It was possible that he had forgotten. He knew that there were memories lost in his seventh regeneration that hadn't been recovered later.

“I'm sure.”

“I know. My memory isn't infallible.”

“I may need a notepad. I feel a need to write it all down.”

The Doctor turned to Jenny. “There's a store room nearby. Down the corridor, the twenty third door on the right.”

“How's that nearby?” she asked.

“It is relative to the scale of the TARDIS,” the Doctor answered.

“Sure,” Jenny dashed off.

She walked briskly along the corridor. She took the time to take stock. Running from the Tomb to the TARDIS had nearly exhausted her. It wasn’t just the running that had taken a lot out of her. It was the fact that she had to carry Clara part of the way, and the shock of running into both a Dalek and a Cyberman. That had been touch and go. She and Vastra had fought many things over the years, but those were not things she wanted to deal with. She hoped she would never have to deal with a Dalek or Cyberman in her time.

The dangers they faced as they investigated crime were enough. She then thought of Clara. It was obvious that she was going to have to live with the memories of her echoes. She hoped writing them down would be helpful. She doubted she and Vastra would be able to help much.

_She returned within five minutes with a small notebook._ “Here,” she said, holding it out to Clara, along with a pen.

“Thanks,” Clara said. She started to rapidly write her new memories down. She continued to write until the TARDIS landed, back at the Maitland residence.


End file.
